If you or I lost our job after a period of a few months in which we were nearly prosecuted for assaulting a professional peer, were repeatedly caught lying in public by other peers, and were the subject of national headlines about how we’d called one former coworker a “cunt” and another a “fucking bitch,” what do you think our chances of immediately getting another job would be? I’d say they’d be pretty damn low! Not so, though, for just-fired Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who has just been hired by CNN as part of the network’s ongoing quest to become America’s least-respected news outlet. From Politico:
Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is joining CNN as a political commentator, according to a source familiar with the arrangement.
It’s a salaried position and will make Lewandowski exclusive to CNN, effective immediately.
After the high-profile March 8 incident in which Lewandowski grabbed Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields (then denied doing so until security footage was released that showed him in the act), BuzzFeed actually reported that he’d pulled a similar move with a CNN reporter:
At a press conference earlier this month in West Palm Beach, Florida, Lewandowski physically pushed CNN reporter Noah Gray away from Trump as he tried to ask the candidate a question, according to a source with close knowledge of the incident.
(Lewandowski said the BuzzFeed report was “factually inaccurate.”)
One thing that gets buried sometimes amidst CNN’s embarrassing willingness to do anything Donald Trump wants and its affinity for “provocative” bimbos like Piers Morgan and Don Lemon is that the outlet actually also employs a lot of very good journalists around the world; when there’s a breaking domestic or international crisis, CNN is actually a very useful source of information. It’s just too bad that at all other times its content is the television equivalent of walking into a lamppost.
By the way, here are the official guidelines for employee conduct issued by CNN’s corporate parent, Time Warner. The section about promoting a “respectful workplace” and “maintaining a safe and healthy work environment” starts on page 8.
Update, 3:15 p.m.: I forgot to mention that it’s been previously reported that Lewandowski is subject to a “legally binding nondisclosure agreement” that prohibits him from disparaging Donald Trump or any member of Trump’s family. And this is someone who CNN is paying to comment on the ongoing presidential election, 50 percent of whose major-party candidates are Donald Trump. Truly a stellar hire on every level.
